Surveys

Age 5 Survey

The Age 5 Survey of BCS70 took place during 1975 and was known the Child Health and Education Study. The survey aimed to examine your physical, social and cognitive development and to look at your experiences of pre-school education and health care. Just over 13,000 of you took part.

What we asked

Some examples of your drawings at age 5

Health visitors visited your homes and conducted interviews with your parents (mothers in most cases) and also asked them to complete a paper questionnaire. Information was collected about your family, who you lived with, the homes you lived in, the type of work your parents were doing, your health, your parents’ health, home activities such as reading and watching television and whether you had been to nursery or playgroups.

You competed a number of tests including a reading test and the ‘draw a man’ test in which you were asked to ‘make a picture of a man or a lady’. Your drawings were given a score out of 30 based on whether you had included various body parts. The top score was 23. On average, you included 10 body parts in your drawings.

The Age 5 Survey also included a brief medical examination where your height and head circumference was measured.